Retail display company sharing their thoughts, advice, photos, and promotions.

Month: October 2014

Halloween has snuck upon us once again. In my case, I have wonderful ideas in February about “what I want to be” but once it hits mid-October, I have no costume in place. I end up going to a Halloween party dressed in a football jersey and going as a “football player.” How original, am I right?

Dressing up for Halloween and participating in fun fall activities had me thinking. Why do we dress up as someone (or something) else, go to haunted houses to be scared on purpose, and ask our neighbors for candy?

Well, the answers can be found right here, along with some other interesting facts on the second largest commercial holiday after Christmas.

Here are a few facts about one of the best holidays, Halloween!

1. Its origins stem 2,000 years ago from the ancient Celtic festival called Samhain which was the celebration of the end of harvest season in Gaelic culture. It was the time used by the ancient Pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter. #WinterIsComing

2. The Gaelics believed that on October 31st, the boundaries between the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life. This would cause mayhem such as sickness and damaged crops.

3. To ward off the evil spirits, they decided to dress up in animal heads, skins, costumes, and masks.

4. Fast forward to 609 A.D. when Pope Boniface created All Martyrs Day which evolved into All Saints’ Day, which is celebrated on Nov. 1. Catholics fused elements of Samhain, which lead to All-Hallows Eve, then to what we know it as today, Halloween.

5. Bobbing for apples originated with the Romans around 43 A.D.

6. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the traditional holiday in the 1800s to America, but it wasn’t until after 1947, did the holiday really take off.

7. Americans spend $6 billion each year on Halloween.

8. Combined, $4 billion is spent on costumes, decorations and parties. The other $2 billion is on candy.

9. The original jack-o-lanterns were made from turnips, beets, and potatoes.

10. A Halloween full moon is rarer than a white Christmas (We will have to wait until 2020 for the next one.)

11. Samhainophobia is the fear of Halloween.

12. In 2010, 72.2% of those surveyed by the National Retail Federation will hand out candy, 46.3% will carve a pumpkin, 20.8% will visit a haunted house, and 11.5% will dress up their pets.

13. There’s a $1,000 fine for using or selling Silly String in Hollywood on Halloween.

14. The most popular Halloween costumes of all time are a witch, a vampire, a ghost, Frankenstein’s monster, and a cat!

From everyone here at Sharn Enterprises, Inc, we hope every has a safe and spook-tacular Halloween!

For more information about our products and services, please visit our website at www.sharndisplays.com, follow us on Twitter, and “Like” us on Facebook!

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Shopper marketing is “understanding how one’s target consumers behave as shoppers in different channels and formats and leveraging this intelligence to the benefit of all stakeholders, defined as brands, consumers, retailers and shoppers.”

The 2014 Shopper Marketing Expo was held October 21st-23rd in Minneapolis, Minnesota with Sharn Enterprises, Inc exhibiting at this show for the first time. At the annual conference attended by nearly 4,000 people and hosting over 100 exhibitors, the Shopper Expo is considered the “largest event that gathers the right industry players in one place and contains every aspect of the retail industry.”

If anyone has ever prepared to exhibit at a trade show, then they know that is it not an easy feat. The time, organization, project management, and deadlines that have to be met is difficult, but definitely worth it.

The President of Sharn, Roger A. Wandersee, was the first to arrive in the North Star State. Designers Scott Sterchele, Stephanie Shostok, and Roger S. Wandersee then joined Roger A. one day later.

For both days of the conference, we had a great turn out.

Our incentive drawing for a free iPad along with other giveaways and social media postings helped ensure that we attracted customers to our booth.

In addition to chatting and getting some “swag,” the attendees that dropped by also were able to preview our new displays currently in Kohl’s, Macy’s, and Belk department stores.

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The event overall was a blast to attend as well as exhibit at. The show floor had energy and fun bouncing from booth to booth. Not only was it fun to exhibit and meet new people walking the floor, it was also interesting to learn about our fellow booth neighbors, who had many exciting and interesting products to offer.

Overall, the Sharn Enterprises, Inc team is excited to grow and foster new relationships with the Shopper Marketing Expo connections that were made, and we look forward to exhibit at even more upcoming trade shows in 2015!

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On October 1st, 2014, I had the pleasure of attending the small business seminar entitled, “It’s not about you, it’s about Bacon!” Hosted by Old Plank Trail Bank in Frankfort, IL, the keynote speaker was Brian Basilico.

Not only is Brian a college professor, he runs his own B2B marketing business and attends over 20 networking events every month. Why does he do it? Because Brian loves to learn. Although a teacher, he takes everything he does and learns from it.

Brian offered great advice on B2B marketing as well entertained us by keeping things real. Here are some of the key points I learned from this event that may be beneficial to your business’s marketing efforts:

Relationships are the currency of business.

People do business with people they know, like, and trust.

The most shared items on the internet involve Kittens and Bacon.

Flipboard is an application you can use to turn your social media postings into a digital magazine.

Listen to people twice as much as you talk (you have two ears and one mouth, for a reason!)

Take pictures of others and share them on your own social media platforms.

Edu-tain and info-tain on social media- Be active and responsive.

Pictures increase engagement by 70%.

Don’t post just about your business.

Have fun.

Be authentic.

Social media is the medium, social networking is the relationship.

Gaining Trust: Give 100% of yourself 100% of the time and expect nothing in return.

Recommend someone else on LinkedIn out of the blue- Just because!

LinkedIn is wide open property, unlike Yelp. You can copy and paste reviews about your business or yourself on flyers, brochures, etc.

Great content is KING!

On a website, a person spends on average 3 clicks and 2 minutes.

Differentiate yourself from others and find what makes you more “connectable.”

We thank Old Plank Trail Bank in Frankfort, IL for hosting this event. With advice from Brian Basilico and as well as my own experiences, I am excited to delve deeper into the world of B2B marketing!

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We have orders to ship, vendors to pay, employee issues, time constraints, and so it goes, on and on. We worry about whether or not we are profitable or just digging a bigger financial hole to climb out of. We wonder if we are keeping all of our customers happy, and if they will keep coming back to us.

Yeah – that’s a lot to worry about, and I have observed over the years that the temperament of the “boss” can make a bad situation worse, or it can often turn things around and make them better.

In my opinion, a boss with a good sense of humor goes a long way to minimizing many of these problems. He or she tends to set the tone for the entire work force. Remember, being the “boss” doesn’t mean that you are the only one who cares about these things. Unless you have done just a miserable job of hiring your employees, you can rest assured that your employees also care about sales, the customers, vendors, and especially a stable work environment. After all, unless they plan to win the lottery, they need their jobs, and you need their labor, their skill and their trust.

So my advice to you is — be serious about your business, just don’t take yourself too seriously!